Zoya Laktionova

Zoya Laktionova (b. 1984, Mariupol) is a Ukrainian artist and film director. She was born in a working-class family. For the first time, she entered the world of documentary cinema as the heroine of the film "Ma" (2017) by Maria Stoianova, and a year later she shot her first short documentary about the mined sea "Diorama" (2018, 12 min.). The film won an award in the MyStreetFilms category at the "86" festival, participated in numerous European film festivals (DOK Leipzig, Ji.Hlava, Cottbus etc.) and was released in cinemas in Ukraine. The premiere of Zoya's second film "Territory of Empty Windows" (2020, 10 min.) took place in the international short film competition at DocudaysUA 2021, was in the national competition of the Molodist festival 2021 and received a special award from the Ji.Hlava festival at the Obyrok festival in 2021 year The international premiere of the film took place at the MakeDox 2021 festival in North Macedonia. Now Zoya lives in Kyiv and works as an independent documentary film director. She works with the subjects of war, memory, and personal stories.